The present invention relates to a community service offering apparatus, a community service offering method, a program storage medium, and a community system. More particularly, the invention relates to techniques for automatically charging users for services established and offered over a computer network such as the Internet.
Recent years have witnessed phenomenal advances in computing technology spanning information processing and data communication resulting in widespread acceptance of computer systems in society. The trend has given rise to a growing need for network-based computing techniques designed to interconnect computers. The network allows users of connected computers to share computer-related resources and to distribute, deliver, exchange or share diverse kinds of information therebetween. Furthermore, the users of network-linked computers may jointly perform tasks over the network.
There exist various types of networks for interconnecting computers. Such networks include a LAN (local area network) established locally by use of, say, the Ethernet (trademark); a WAN (wide area network) constituted by interconnecting LANs using dedicated lines; and the Internet, a network on a global scale built up by increasing numbers of networks getting connected with one another throughout the world.
Many services are offered on the Internet, including the WWW (World Wide Web), News, TELNET (TELetypewriter NETwork), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), and Gopher. Of these services, the WWW is a global information search system offering information spaces of a hyperlinked structure, which is the biggest contributing factor to the explosive growth and rapid acceptance of the Internet.
In addition to the services outlined above, applications such as BBS (bulletin board system, i.e., an electronic bulletin board on which to post notices) and the so-called chat are offered on the Internet.
BBS is a system that allows computerized information to be posted cumulatively at servers on a network so that the posted information may be browsed via the network. The BBS system manages information in a unified manner using servers and offers the advantage of permitting users dispersed over wide areas to exchange information in real time.
The chat is an online talk service allowing users to “talk” with one another over the network by typing characters using keyboards. A plurality of users log in to a “chat room” for simultaneous conversation, with each user's statement displayed concurrently on the monitor screens of all the participants. The chat system allows users residing in wide areas to enjoy real-time talks or debates in a virtual world built on the Internet. In other words, the chat system provides a community established virtually over the Internet. That community is created and maintained by a plurality of users who log in to the service and perform simulated social activities constituted by communications.
What is appealing about the chat is that as soon as a user logs in to the virtual world offered by the chat system, he or she is entitled immediately to take part in the ongoing discussion. Also appealing is the fact that participants need not know one another in the real world. Whereas interactions by BBS may be termed asynchronous, talks through the chat system are synchronous so that each participant can evaluate the others' reactions before proceeding with more contributions to the conversation. This feature provides a more stimulating communication environment.
An example of the chat is known as “Habitat” (trademark) in the field of personal computer communication services. Habitat constitutes a service that permits chat in the so-called cyberspace.
In a Habitat environment, users launch their “avatars” (originally the incarnations of Hindu deities) into a virtual city called Populopolis rendered in two-dimensional graphics. In Populopolis, users who have logged on can chat with one another through their avatars. Details of Habitat are described illustratively in “Cyberspace: First Steps” (by Michael Benedikt; ed. 1991, MIT Press; Cambridge, Mass.; ISBN0-262-02327-X).
Some resource services offered on a wide area network such as the Internet have been rendered chargeable. In such cases, users of the services are charged on a fixed-price basis (monthly) or on an as-used basis.
At chargeable or members-only sites, users trying to log in to the server (or to gain access to chargeable resources) are prompted to enter the user's name (or account name or login name) and a password. The login procedure involves a dialog box popping up on the user's browser screen urging the user to input his or her name and a password. With the user's name and password entered, the server authenticates the user's qualifications and determines whether or not to grant permission to log on. Fees are settled in diverse ways: by credit card or debit card; by withdrawals from the user's account at designated financial institutions such as banks; or by mailing of an invoice to the user for subsequent settlement.
On the side of service providers that operate servers, the fees collected from users sustain the offered services or are used as funds for research and development of future products. In that sense, the practice of rendering services chargeable is rightfully in line with the spirit of the market economy.
From the user's viewpoint, however, chargeable services are often regarded as significant economic or mental burdens or barriers to the continuous use of the services. Such barriers are not necessarily overcome simply because service providers develop and offer more attractive products or services to potential users. Sometimes, rendering a hitherto-free service chargeable can drastically reduce the number of its users.
Drops in the number of users translate into proportionally depressed sales for, say, simple information providing services over the network or for network-based marketing services designed to bypass some product distribution stages to cut down on expenses.
The diminishing number of users can be a far more serious problem with community type services such as the chat system. The reason is that a community can be created and maintained only if a plurality of users participate in it (i.e., log on to it) and conduct simulated social activities (communications). With few other users (talking partners) in the community space, the community itself will disappear as the basis of the service. The situation is the same with game communities: games requiring opponents (role-playing, action, etc.) cannot be played without opponents, i.e., other users who have logged in.
In other words, running on a chargeable basis any community type service established with numerous participants is a difficult task; it challenges the meaning and the reason for such a service to exist.
There already exists a service known as rent-a-disc offered by server operators. Fees of this service are determined by physical units such as those of disc capacity (MB, GB, etc.) that are made available to users. To understand the value of such a service, however, requires that users possess sufficient knowledge about computers and networks; novices may have difficulty understanding why such a service has marketing values. Providers of the service, for their part, have difficulty competing with one another in terms of service quality because the rent-a-disc service ultimately comes down to the simple maintenance of user's data.